Posts in Category: careers

Cardiovascular professionals from around the world will be in Washington, D.C., this month for the American College of Cardiology's Scientific Session and Expo -- and LUMEDX will be there as well.

Set for March 17-19, the event will feature interactive debates, education and scientific presentations. ACC.17 also offers 11 learning pathways, allowing participants to focus on their choice of topics. More than 300 sessions will offer dual CME/MOC credit.

A myriad of clinical topics will be discussed, among them:

Atrial fibrillation

Acute heart failure

Cardiac surgery

Invasive cardiovascular angiography and intervention

Nuclear imaging

Pediatric/congenital cardiology

Vascular medicine

If you're going to ACC, stop by and say hi at LUMEDX Booth 2411: We'll be presenting the latest CV data-management tools and our new Cardiovascular Performance Program, which offers a no-charge analysis of your facility's CV service line performance on complication rates, including the associated costs -- and opportunities for improvement.

If you'd like to schedule a one-on-one meeting with LUMEDX,click here.

Baptist Health South Florida, Southern Ohio Medical Center, and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital are among the 100 best places to work, according to Fortune. Fortune's annual list of the 100 best places to work included 11 hospitals this year, with Baptist Health South Florida in the No. 1 spot among medical workplaces. The rankings take into account workplace culture, benefits offered, and career paths, among other considerations.

The trend toward connectivity within healthcare systems has a positive future, according to the 2016 HIMSS Connected Health Survey. More than 50 percent of hospitals surveyed reported using at least three connected technologies, and many plan to improve engagement and quality of care by implementing additional technologies.

A Harvard department of healthcare policy analysis "shows such wide variation in baseline spending levels from one ACO to the next that any future benchmarking efforts, including those performed within single given regions, must roll out parity measures only gradually—or pay the price in the form of participation falloffs," HealthExec asserts. That’s because transitioning to a common payment model using average regional fee-for-service spending as the basis for the benchmark for all ACOs in an area would probably discourage less efficient organizations—including those serving sicker-than-average populations—from continuing in ACO programs (especially in two-sided risk contracts) if the model were implemented within a few years of participation.

Upheaval in the healthcare industry may be keeping CEO turnover rate high. This is the third year in a row that the turnover rate has been 18 percent. "ACHE President and CEO Deborah Bowen blamed ongoing organizational consolidation, Baby Boomer retirements, internal transfers within healthcare systems and the emergence of new models of care for the high turnover rates," Fiercehealthcare.com reported.

A recent study found that the correlation between total spending per Medicare beneficiary and total spending per privately insured beneficiary was 0.14 in 2011, while the correlation for inpatient spending was 0.267. “What that suggests is that policy for Medicare doesn’t necessarily make better policy for the privately insured,” one researcher told Health Exec.

A new guide from Medicare gives hospitals methods for addressing ethnic and racial healthcare disparities in readmissions. The guide comes amid increasing concerns about racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare outcomes, and frustration about federal penalties that some say unfairly punish providers in high-risk communities.

"Some medical data miners may soon be allowed to share and sell Medicare and private-sector medical-claims data, as well as analyses of that data, under proposed regulations the CMS issued," Modern Healthcare reports. "Quality improvement organizations and other 'qualified entities' would be granted permission to perform data analytics work and share it with, or sell it, to others, under an 86-page proposed rule that carries out a provision of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015" (#MACRA).

Nearly 80 percent of hospital employees are women. How might they be affected by President Obama's recent announcement that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will begin requiring companies that employ 100 or more people to report wage information that includes gender, race, and ethnicity?

New research shows that healthcare miscommunication has cost nearly 2,000 lives, and was a contributing factor in 7,149 cases (30 percent) of 23,000 medical malpractice claims filed between 2009 and 2013. Communication failures were also to blame for 37 percent of all high-severity injury cases.

Being physically fit may not only help to reduce the risk of heart attacks, but may also decrease the risk of mortality following a first heart attack, according to a new study. The study used multivariable logistic regression models to assess how exercise affected the risk of mortality at 28, 90, and 365 days after a heart attack.

Healthcare IT News reports on how the Affordable Care Act and the adoption of healthcare IT has changed the job landscape by opening up more positions for records technicians, medical assistants, patient navigators, and other frontline and nonclinical positions in the healthcare industry.

InformationWeek discusses the proliferation of healthcare informatics use, and how more and more providers are switching to electronic systems. The article identifies areas in which healthcare IT vendors, planners, managers, and developers should be focused.

Government Health IT reports on the issue of security within the healthcare industry. According to a 2012 study from the Ponemon Institute, 94% of healthcare organizations have reported at least one HIPAA breach. Because of this, healthcare organizations need to be proactive and perform audits and assessments.

A report from the California HealthCare Foundation found that the number of doctors in California using EHRs increased from 37% in 2008 to 59% in 2013. However, only 30% of hospitals have EHRs that meet all the 12 requirements of meaningful use.

In LUMEDX news, the cardiology department at Saratoga Hospital has deployed LUMEDX’s HealthView in its cardiovascular service line to improve access to comprehensive patient information across the continuum of care.

HIT Consultant offers up a perspective on the growth of the health IT market and argues that there are still a great deal of factions, competing ideologies, and more dividing factors within the health IT market – especially in the areas of surveillance and consolidation.

In health IT hiring news, it appears that new data from an analysis of online job postings shows that the number of health IT jobs available has exceeded projections. The job market for employees working with EHR systems continues to be robust.

Government Health IT discusses what EHR developers and providers need to do in order to provide patient-centric care. Some ideas include integration of all settings, integration of all users across the enterprise, and accurate and timely documentation.

EHR Intelligence covers how many experts – including physicians, lawmakers, and EHR developers – are currently considering ways to integrate social media concepts into the collection and use of electronic health record data.

Reuters cover a story about how rural hospitals and doctors are now increasingly using telemedicine to gain access to specialty care for patients in rural areas. By seeking expert help remotely, rural doctors can improve quality of care for their patient populations.

According to a recent HIMSS Analytics’ survey, there’s one industry where job growth isn’t slowing – and that’s in healthcare IT. According to the survey, which focused on the healthcare IT workforce, more than 85% of survey respondents said that they had hired at least one employee in 2012. And on top of that, 79% of respondents indicated that they were looking to hire additional staff in the coming 12 months.

In fact, organizations are currently having a difficult time hiring enough candidates to fulfill projects and meet deadlines. Though outsourcing projects is an option, this presents a problem once healthcare organizations need to sustain IT systems with upgrades, modifications, and more.

As EHR adoption continues to ramp up, healthcare organizations are facing a challenge when it comes to hiring for their IT teams. Nearly half of respondents said that they had to place an IT initiative on hold due to staffing shortages. Even when businesses did find candidates who fit their needs, a quarter of respondents said that other offers took away their IT employees – thereby impacting the business and putting projects like EHR upgrades, integrations, and new system installations on hold.

As salaries for IT leaders in healthcare continue to grow and the hiring market becomes more competitive, what should hospitals and healthcare facilities do when looking for the right talent?

Josh explains that the benefits of investing in IT personnel are apparent. “Organizations can realize significant ROI to improve and optimize operational, financial, and clinical outcomes by utilizing existing and new IT systems and solutions,” he says. “Specialized healthcare IT professionals can fulfill roles from custom module software development to systems administration, data analytics, and business intelligence.”

In this increasingly competitive marketplace for experienced healthcare IT talent, how do organizations win?

As a recruiter, Josh understands that organizations have to be creative when it comes to staffing for IT positions.

“Although traditional methods of HR job postings or using outsourced headhunters can bring mixed results, finding creative solutions to recruiting the best talent does not have to be an ordeal,” he says. “Organizations can focus on internal talent and equity to fulfill healthcare IT staffing initiatives by encouraging less technical staff to enroll in college or online certification programs such as database development, analytics or business intelligence report development, and training courses from healthcare IT vendors like LUMEDX.”

What about social media?

“You have to successfully brand your organization as an ‘employer of choice’ in order to attract top candidates,” Josh says. “This can be achieved with low cost marketing campaigns leveraging social media channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Both active and passive candidates can be found on a channel like LinkedIn, and HR recruiters can locate and network with specialized professionals who fit their hiring profile. If you’re looking for a job or are looking to hire the right candidate, you should be on these kinds of channels.”

What are your thoughts on hiring for healthcare IT right now? Sound off with your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

Barbara O’Brien is a Product Education Trainer at LUMEDX. She also is the voice behind the demos of LUMEDX’s free e-learning materials, which consist of step-by-step lessons, video demos, PDF guides, and task simulations that can be accessed 24/7.

What do you do at LUMEDX?

I work as a LUMEDX software product education trainer and conduct on-site instruction in Bellevue, on-site training at hospitals, and webinar classes. I started out in the Training department 10 years ago as a Documentation Writer, and I plan to stay here. Within six months of starting, I moved from being a writer to a trainer. Amazingly, I love what I do now just as much as I did when I first started. The job changes, but so do I.

I work with two other long-term employees. Even though I’ve been here for 10 years, I still find that my colleagues are great mentors and have helped me grow in my career. At work, I always try to represent the company in the most positive and professional manner possible. If I didn’t, my mom would yell at me!

What have you learned from working with our clients?

In working with our clients, I’ve learned that training is not a one-way street. We’re all students. I have never taught a class where I haven’t learned something from a student. After each class, I’m a little smarter. With any luck, the students are too!

What is your favorite part of working with our clients?

I love helping clinical staff make improvements that save lives.

I also like the challenge of working with software. Software is like anything else in life – you have to understand it to love it. And to understand it, you have to spend time with it. It’s incredibly fun and gratifying to get our customers to the point where they love the software and completely understand it.

How has your experience working at LUMEDX changed over the years?

There have been a couple ways in which my experience has changed over the years:

Teaching Method

Ten years ago, I was a young and naïve trainer. I thought that when you taught, you used an agenda, went through all the topics, and called it a day. Students would either get it or not. Now, I know that people learn in different ways. It’s my job to teach and to help our clients succeed. If someone doesn’t understand at first, it’s my responsibility to come at the subject from a different angle until they grasp the concept.

Comprehension

I’ve heard people say that you know you’ve fully comprehended a subject when you can teach it to your grandmother. Over the years, I’ve learned that it’s not just important to teach students how to follow steps – they need to be able to understand the steps well enough to teach them to someone else. Now I try to always incorporate a “why” element into every subject that I teach. Asking why you’re doing something helps students achieve fuller comprehension.

Are there any aspects of your job that have surprised you?

Yes! After 10 years at a job, I thought I’d get bored. I’m not at all. I don’t think monotony will ever arrive, since every day brings something new. I learn new things daily, whether it’s a technical skill, a clinical aspect, or even a valuable life lesson – it doesn’t matter.

I’ve learned that I need to be receptive to learning something every day – and that learning is exciting. My hope is to impart some of what I learn to my students in a way that keeps them as excited about learning as I am!

Describe your professional background and what brought you to work at LUMEDX.
I was trained as a radiologic technologist. I worked in hospitals for 10 years, seven of those in the cath lab. I got an opportunity to work for a device company and was ready for a change. I took it, and have been on the vendor side for 23 years now.

Is there an average day for you?
Every day is a bit different. I travel to hospitals to do demos for cardiology departments looking to purchase a CVIS. Those demos can be a couple of hours to a week. When I am not on the road, I do demos via WebEx (a web conferencing application). I also train new employees, and work with engineering and product development. I have been at LUMEDX for 14 years, so I do a bit of everything.

How have health IT and hospitals changed since you’ve been in the industry?
Healthcare has changed a great deal over the last 25 years. Departments used to be able to purchase what they wanted with limited oversight. Economic changes and government regulations have changed the way products are purchased. The timeline for decision making is much longer.
However, some of these regulations have required cardiology departments to focus much more on improving performance and outcomes. LUMEDX can help our clients with these types of challenges.

What would someone from outside the industry find surprising?
I guess most people don’t think that hospitals are businesses. Although the first goal of all hospitals is to take care of patients, they also have to watch finances and, ultimately, the bottom line. It is getting harder and harder for hospitals to meet these very different goals.

How has LUMEDX changed since you’ve started working here?
We have grown tremendously. I used to know everyone. I don’t anymore.

You get to keep the frequent flyer miles you rack up as part of your job. Have you used those miles to go anywhere interesting?
I used miles to fly to Africa and back. This June, I am using miles to fly business class to Italy. I also got my best friend a business class ticket with miles as well. My safari to Africa was a long-held dream. I took a three-week trip with friends to celebrate our 50th birthdays. We went to Botswana, Zambia and South Africa. So I like traveling for work and of course also for pleasure.

We know many visitors to our website are interested in career positions. The following is a guest post from the blog of consulting firm ProLango featuring LUMEDX Technical Recruiter Josh Jozwik offering tips on what to do and what not to do when applying for a position at LUMEDX.

By Paul Anderson

There are job seekers who research company e-mail addresses and spam them with their resumes with the hopes of getting a job. These techniques won’t help you land an interview with LUMEDX, a medical software company in Bellevue, says Josh Jozwik, a technical recruiter for the company.

Jozwik says job seekers need to avoid the traditional job-hunting techniques if they’re looking to get an interview with his company. Here are other things he says job seekers should avoid:

Cover letters: Most cover letters sent to LUMEDX offer little or no value to Josh or his hiring team. Many cover letters he sees tend to be templates found on traditional resume books. If you’re going to send a cover letter, Josh suggests you send a short paragraph and bullet list on how your accomplishments might meet the company’s objectives. If there are shortcomings on your resume, this is the opportunity to address them.

Applying for every position listed: There is a misconception that if you send enough resumes to a company, you might get their attention. Applying for every position listed shows that you’re desperate, you lack a sense of career direction, and are just trying to meet your unemployment numbers. Quality is more important than quantity, says Jozwik.

The number of resumes in LUMEDX’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS) has grown by over 60 percent in the last two years alone. Josh and his team are inundated. While the openings are scarce, the techniques shared below can help you land an interview with his company:

LinkedIn introductions: Josh is connected to 90 percent of the staff in Bellevue. If you’re hoping to get an informational meeting with the company, chances are you’ll have to go through him. While you could use job boards or apply on the company website directly, Jozwik is a big advocate of LinkedIn introductions. See if you know someone who can vouch for you and introduce you to the company.

LinkedIn discussions: Jozwik and his team monitor certain LinkedIn groups carefully and reach out to interesting participants. Visit Josh's profile, notice which groups he’s a member of and join them. Review the questions and comments other members are posting on these groups and contribute your expertise. Your involvement can help you shine with LUMEDX and other corporations monitoring these sources.

Employee referral: While it’s impossible for the company to look at every resume submitted for each position, they take their referrals seriously. In fact on their career site, they have a tool called “Are you on LinkedIn: Do you know anyone at LUMEDX?” By clicking on this tool, you can see who you might already know who can introduce you to the company.

If you’re a technology professional with medical experience and you use the techniques mentioned above, your odds have greatly increased in getting an interview with the company.